Tag Archives: India

Manish Sharma, Chairman, Gujarat Tourism Corporation Society, said, “Indian electoral process has been increasingly in demand during assembly elections. UP, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka have been highlighted as “tourism-friendly states”, and visitors can be “easily facilitated to experience the process” here. If government takes the initiative of promoting election tourism, 5-7 lakh tourists can be brought to India for elections alone.”

Indian Ministry of Tourism showcases its strength at ATM 2024 with a strong delegation led by Gyan Bhushan, Senior Economic Advisor, MOT and Arun Srivastava, Joint Director, General, MOT. It also launched a campaign to promote India as a holistic destination. More than 55 participants from India including State Tourism, IRCTC, tour operators, hotels, airlines etc are participating in the show.

Highlighting India’s growing importance in the global travel market, Bernstein in its report said, “India is on its way to emerge to 5th place in outbound travel spending by 2027, reaching $89 billion compared to its current 10th position at $38 billion in 2019. The country is also expected to become the 3rd largest domestic travel market by 2027, with expenditures reaching $174 billion, up from $127 billion in 2029 when it held the 5th position.”

Talking about the growth of hospitality in India, Mark Hoplamazian, CEO, Hyatt, said, “India today is better poised for growth in the hospitality sector than the rest of the world, and that is because of the tremendous warmth and engagement of its people. The experience people get in India when they disembark from the plane and start exploring the country is what sets the country apart.”

Sunny Sodhi, FCM Managing Director, India, said, “India is the 9th largest travel market in the world for business travel spending. It is the 4th largest market for the Asia Pacific region. In 2023, India’s business travel spending grew 24.7 per cent and we anticipate an 18.3 per cent increase in spending in 2024.”

Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa, India in his inaugural speech at FHRAI Summit in Delhi, said, “In due course, India will become the third country in the world to have the third-largest greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, India must become the first country in the world to grow its GDP through decarbonization.”

Rajesh Magow, MMT, Chief Executive Officer said, “Inbound is the only significant laggard.” The main reason was that every big domestic market or region in India was doing well along with other issues like visa issuance, low supply of air seat inventory and high airfares, but it is also making its way slowly now, he added.

Sharing her views on how business travel in India is slated for growth, Catherine Logan, Regional Vice President of EMEA & APAC, Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), said, “India will fully reach pre-2019 spending levels by 2025 and is likely to reach 120 per cent of its pre-COVID business travel spend by 2027.”

Giving an overview of India’s ‘Hotels & Hospitality’ sector, HVS Anarock revealed that India’s domestic air passenger traffic increased by nearly 5 per cent in January 2024 but the country’s hotel sector saw lower occupancy compared to pre-pandemic levels and continued growth in average rates.

Research on the Indian travel market and shopper behaviour by Swiss research agency m1nd- set revealed that in the next five to six years, the country will be the world’s fourth-largest travel spender. The middle class in India will account for about half of the population by 2030, it added.